Serum total cholesterol and lipoprotein analysis was performed on the same blood samples of 139 asymptomatic Chinese subjects aged 40-60 years. There was a highly significant correlation between serum total cholesterol and low density lipoproteins (correlation coefficient = 0.8376, p less than 0.001) in Chinese, which means that total cholesterol can be used as the initial screening to identify individuals who may need lipoprotein analysis. The American National Cholesterol Education Programme (ANCEP) recommended threshold total cholesterol levels that indicate lipoprotein analysis for the high risk and low risk groups were found to have high sensitivities and negative predictive values but relatively low specificities and positive predictive values. Thirty to forty per cent of the lipoprotein analyses recommended by the ANCEP guidelines were not necessary. There was no significant age or sex influence on the degree of correlation between serum total cholesterol and LDL.